Sony had a $5.8 billion net loss in fiscal 2011, and even for a giant like Sony that's not acceptable. They will try to get some money back with rebuilding their operations, mainly focusing on their core divisions such as games and image sensors. The changes at Optiarc are just the beginning, as Sony is planning to cut another 10,000 from their work force by March.
Optiarc holds around 15% share of the global optical disc drive market, but they started to operate at a loss after competition started lowering their prices to the level where Sony did not want to go. Beside that shrinking market for optical drives in notebooks also gave its portion to Optiarc's losses. The company was founded in 2006 in association with NEC, but it turned into full a Sony subsidiary in 2008. Sony shares lost around 40% since they announced this revival plan, but they are floating 5% above a low of ¥877 after they announced the horrible forecast on August 2.
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According to Sony's reconstruction plan, there is no room for their optical disc drive business for the next year. Unconfirmed sources said that Sony Optiarc Inc., the Sony Subsidiary that makes CD and DVD drives used in PCs, will have to terminate all operations by March 2013. This move should be one of Sony's attempts to cut a few money-losing divisions. The bigger part of 400 employees in Japan and other countries will be let go through early retirement program as it was stated in Asahi Shimbun paper today.
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